>> Wednesday, April 6, 2016

PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz

Just when the issue of Sen. Grace
Poe-Llamanzares’ “qualifications” to run for president had been put to rest and
allowing her to run for president, the dissenting opinion of Senior Associate
Justice Antonio Carpio revealed that Llamanzares did not get a majority vote
because the Supreme Court (SC) ruling on her citizenship was 7-5-3. Yes, seven
is not a majority; it is a minority.

Carpio
cited Rule 12, Section 1 of the SC Internal Rules, which requires that all
decisions and actions in court cases “shall be made up upon the concurrence of
the majority of the Members of the Court who actually took part in the
deliberation on the issues involved and voted on them.” Since all 15 justices
had voted, at least eight votes are needed to achieve a majority ruling.

Yet
they decided that a minority of seven justices constituted the majority in the
15-member Supreme Court, which reminds me of voodoo ritual where the quack
doctor pricks needles on a doll and chant, wriggle, juggle, and jiggle until
the “desired” outcome is achieved. If that sounds ridiculous to you, so be it.
But this crazy interpretation – or manipulation – of the Constitution is going
to hurt the judicial system for a long time to come until something is done to
remove these inflicted warts. One of the petitioners, former Sen. Francisco
“Kit” Tatad, said that the SC ruling had “bastardized” the Constitution.

Judicial
voodooism

Evidently,
the “desired” outcome was to qualify Llamanzares to run for president
notwithstanding the obvious facts that she was a foundling with unknown
parentage (which she admits) and lacked the 10-year residency constitutional
requirements (which she denies). But any way you calculate it using simple
arithmetic, it’s less than 10 years! And there are no ifs and buts about it.
So, how – or should I say, why – did the seven justices insist that Llamanzares
had satisfied the residency requirements?

But
what happened was the Supreme Court – on a 9-6 vote – decided to allow
Llamanzares to run regardless of the 7-5-3 votes on the citizenship issue. But
the way the nine justices decided to proclaim Llamanzares natural-born Filipino
citizen smacks of judicial voodooism because there simply is no way that a
foundling can be deemed natural-born citizen. It was a decision that was not
predicated on what the Constitution clearly requires. Yet, nine justices
blatantly – and shamelessly — ignored the Constitution.

“Lagay
is my guy”

There
must be something that made them do it. Could their votes been bought as one
insider in the Supreme Court had reportedly inferred, saying that these
justices were bribed P50 million each to vote in favor of Llamanzares?

That’s
a pretty serious allegation but at the same time, considering that bribery, or
“lagay” as it’s known in the local jargon, is one of the most – if not the most
– common way of influencing the government. Indeed, the “lagay” system is what
greases the wheels of the Philippine government to move. As they say back
home, “Lagay is my guy.” Stop the “lagay” system and the wheel stops.

Assuming
that the nine justices were bribed, it begs the question: Who bribed them and
why? While we can only speculate the “who” and “why” of the matter, there are
strange things that may have happened or could happen in the near future.

P-Noy’s
secret candidate

The
political circles are rife with speculations that P-Noy is secretly backing
Llamanzares. That’s the “who.” The “why” is that Llamanzares is the only
presidential candidate who could beat Jejomar Binay and Rodrigo Duterte. The
three of them are at a statistical dead heat.

In
my article, “Is
P-Noy hedging his future on Poe?” (February
12, 2016), I wrote: “Aquino is probably having nightmares about what the future
bodes for him. Indeed, he has every reason to be scared because of what
happened to former presidents Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada and Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, who were both detained on charges of crimes – including
non-bailable plunder – that they allegedly committed while in office.

“It’s
interesting to note that it was Arroyo who pursued the plunder charges against
Estrada that landed him in jail and it was Aquino who put Arroyo in detention
awaiting trial for a series of plunder cases. Could Aquino’s successor pursue
plunder charges and other crimes against him after he leaves office? With the
pattern that Arroyo started, Aquino’s successor might send him to jail, too.
And there is every reason to do so unless his successor is someone who wouldn’t
do it to him… like his pal Roxas. But with Roxas seemingly unelectable, who
among the top three contenders would spare him from prosecution? Or is it
persecution?

“Grace
Poe [Llamanzares], who is Binay’s closest rival, could be kind to Aquino if she
were elected president. She could be Aquino’s ‘insurance’ against
incarceration. Indeed, many suspect that Poe is Aquino’s ‘secret candidate’.”

What
appears to be happening is that the Supreme Court’s decision to allow
Llamanzares to run for president was politically motivated. Interestingly, four
(including Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno) of P-Noy’s six appointees to the
Supreme Court voted to allow Llamanzares to run. Coincidence? Maybe. But as
someone once said, “In politics there are no coincidences.”

It’s
interesting to note that the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), which heard the
disqualification case filed earlier against Llamanzares by Rizalito David,
voted 5-4 to dismiss the case against her. Of the nine SET members, the three
SC justices and Sen. Nancy Binay voted against Llamanzares while the five other
senators on the tribunal voted in favor of Llamanzares. One of them, Sen.
Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, is a first cousin of P-Noy. As soon as the votes were
announced, P-Noy’s sister Kris Aquino congratulated Bam for his vote in favor
of Llamanzares. Coincidence?

Coincidences
or not, two of the most respected SC justices’ words were ominous. Carpio said
that the decision to allow Llamanzares to run for president while “the question
on her being a natural-born Filipino citizen was hanging over her head was to
make a mockery of the elections.” Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro
said, “The issue of natural-born citizenship… if not overturned, will wreak
havoc on our constitutional system of government.”

A
few days ago, the petitioners against Mary Grace Natividad Poe-Llamanzares
submitted a motion for reconsideration. The Supreme Court can redeem its honor
by taking politics out of the case. At the end of the day, if the justices
continue to politicize the Supreme Court, they will destroy the credibility and
integrity of the entire Judiciary beyond repair for a long, long time.